Thursday 22 September 2011

New Blue Dress 2 - Vogue 1179

I'm finally managing to carve out a bit more time for sewing and with the slightly warmer weather I'm thinking about summer.


I've got a RTW dress in a very similar style to Vogue 1179 and I've also seen quite a few versions around the blog-o-sphere on women of all shapes and sizes so I thought I'd give it a go.

The colour of this matte polyester jersey grabbed my eye on a recent shopping trip and I immediately thought of this pattern.  This is a super simple dress that can easily be completed in a couple of hours.  I made this up straight out of the envelope in a size 14.  My hem isn't as deep as recommended but I'm planning on wearing this to work so I can't have it too short.  The armholes are quite snug and when I tried it on I thought I'd enlarge them, but after wearing the dress all day I'm going to leave it like it is. 

I don't only sew with knits - I've got a couple of wovens items cut out and a few other fabrics pre-washed.  I'll just have to see which one calls my name the loudest.

Thursday 15 September 2011

On the bandwagon - Simplicity 2443

It has been too cold to wear my new dress, but I couldn't wait any longer to blog it.


I loved this pattern as soon as I saw it.  I put in a special request to a lovely American lady on Etsy and got my hot little hands on a copy as soon as it was released.  Then it sat in my pattern stash patiently waiting to be used.  My favourite part of the dress is the back - love the racer back style.  I wasn't sure about adding the pockets, I was worried they'd create a lot of bulk, but they're great and I don't think they make any difference to the silhouette. 


Basically I made the dress as per the instructions. A number of people have mentioned that they needed to shorten the shoulder straps, but it wasn't something I needed to do. I added 2 inches to the bodice and left out the zipper and the interfacing on the waistband. I found that clipping the corners so that they fanned out made it a lot easier to attach the straps on the curved sections, it wasn't difficult, you just need to be careful. One thing I wanted to mention - the neckbands specify a 3/8 seam allowance everywhere except the should and side seams, so I assume you are supposed to use 5/8 for those seams. I used 3/8 for the shoulders and 5/8 for the side seams and the bands fit the top section perfectly.


I've already got the jacket cut out and hopefully I like it because I've bought fabric to make a second. 

Because I still had the navy thread in my overlocker I whipped up another version of Kwik Sew 3740 in a beautiful merino jersey from Tessuti.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Self Stitched September: Week 1 round up

I'm so close to having something finished to show you, but in the mean time here's a quick recap of what I've been wearing for week one of Self Stitched September (SSS).  I've decided to extend my challenge a little bit too, for the next three weeks I want to wear a SS outfit once a week, rather than just one item, and dresses don't count.

Day 1
My Frankenpattern dress - top half is Simplicity 2281 and the bottom half is Vogue 8685.

Day 2
 Simplicity 3686 pants - a sad day as we attended a family funeral.

Day 3
 My most recently finished item - Kwik Sew 3740 top.

Day 4
Feeling terrible in Ottobre leggings - can't remember the issue details but they're on the blog somewhere.

Day 5
No outfit today.  I spent the entire day in bed sick. 

Day 6
Back to work in a BWOF skirt - my very first time sewing from the Burd World of Fashion magazines. 

Day 7
 Quick and easy in Vogue 8685

You can check out all the photos from SSS over here on Flickr.